Three Newcastle United flops now free agents in desperate search of a club

Newcastle fans have seen their fair of defensive shockers over the years, and three culprits are now jobless and in search of employment. Surely not a coincidence, is it? You tell us...

For case study A) step forward Jean Alain Boumsong.

Boumsong signed for Newcastle in the 2005 January transfer window for £8 million, just six months after Glasgow Rangers signed him on a free transfer. It remains one of the most ill-fated and costly transfers Newcastle have made over the past decade, and there have been a few.

Boumsong failed to show the form which marked him out as a French international and saw him dominate SPL forwards, shown to be hesitant and flat-footed. His performances saw him become a Premier League joke figure, and he was sold just 18 months into his five-and-a-half year deal.

The good news was at least that Newcastle managed to get shot of him, to Juventus, before he moved to Lyon and later Panathaniakos. Boumsong was released by the Greeks this summer and at 33 he is left still searching for a club now the transfer window has closed.

For case study B) step forward Titus Bramble.

Titus Bramble was bought by Sir Bobby Robson for £6 million in 2002, but never once looked like living up to the hype which he received in the lead up to the deal.

Bramble re-defined the 'defensive clanger' and made it his own, spending five seasons on Tyneside where he frequently looked below Premier League standard, with the odd good performance in between.

He was signed by Wigan in 2007 and later signed for Newcastle's rivals Sunderland, where he found himself in trouble with the law for off-field offences.

Bramble is now 32-years-old and was released by Paolo di Canio, and is still without a club. He has been training with former club Ipswich, while West Ham dismissed him as not fit enough to offer a deal to.

For case study C) step forward Oguchi Onyewu.

American centre-back Oguchi Onyewu was nicknamed 'Gooch' for short, and came over on a short loan spell from AC Milan where he had failed to break into the first team.

The powerful defender played just 11 games for Glenn Roeder's Newcastle, where his partnership with Bramble was seen as disastrous.

His career has seen him feature for Malaga, Twente, and Sporting Lisbon, while he was infamously involved in a training ground fight with Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Onyewu did feature at World Cup 2010 for USA, where he helped limit a blunt England to a 1-1 draw, keeping Wayne Rooney quiet. May be he was not that bad after all...?

Now at 31 he is a free agent, linked with Augsburg, Stuttgart, FC Copenhagen and Club Brugge, but none have taken the plunge and actually offered him a contract.

Dan Coombs

Dan Coombs has been writing for HITC Sport full time since 2012 and has helped the website grow it's audience considerably during this period, while managing a team of writers. He has interviewed high profile names including Stuart Pearce and his work has been cited in Javier Hernandez's biography. In addition to football, Dan is a big fan of the NFL and NBA.